Heavy durable goods, such as riding lawn mowers, outboard motors, and the like, are typically packaged in containers for packaging, storage, and shipping. Containers useful for enclosing heavy durable goods include wood cleated corrugated paperboard containers, wood cleated crates, and metal frame crates. These containers provide top load capacity, by which vertical loading on the container transfers by side members to the base pallet that holds the heavy durable good. Corrugated paperboard containers also provide protection for the contents from dust and incidental contact. Cleated crates, whether of metal or of wood, are generally open, and so the contents need to be separately enclosed such as with plastic film, sheeting, or the like, to protect from dirt and dust.
Conventional wood cleated crates for packaging heavy durable goods typically are comprised of separate loose sides, ends, tops, and bases. These components are known in the trade of “crate shook”. Two sides and two ends are used together with a base and a top for assembly of a wood cleated crate. The separate components are stapled or nailed together at the users assembly lines during packaging of the heavy goods manufactured by the user of the crates. The nailing and stapling however requires much assembly line labor, fasteners, and time. While the assembly line continues to produce heavy articles for packaging, crating line personnel must keep up to prevent backups or being overwhelmed with products coming from the assembly line.
Recent improvements have been made to address problems with the use of crate shook. U.S. Pat. No. 5,829,189 describes a wood cleated crate having hinged-corners that define a unitary body for the cleated crate. U.S. Pat. No. 6,250,050 describes a wood cleated corrugated paperboard container having wing ends that define portions of opposing sides and an end of the crate, which portion are readily attachable to a pallet.
While these containers have reduced the number of components necessary for assembly of a cleated crate, other structures may gainfully provide the benefits of reduced number of components and simplicity of assembly while reducing shipping and storage space to hold the components pending usage at the manufacturing facility. As an alternative to single use containers, some manufacturers of heavy durable goods are using returnable containers. One such returnable container for heavy durable goods is manufactured with steel framing members. The pallet or base of the container includes projecting lugs at the corners. The lugs receive end panels. The pallet and the end panels interlock with detachable pins.
While these types of returnable container have met with some acceptance, there are drawbacks to their use. The end panels must be held while the side members are installed. The connections permit the end panels to move laterally, which lessens the structural rigidity of the container and restricts the containers from stacked loading for storage in warehouses or in trucks for shipping. The loose pins and detachable separate components often are lost and not returned. This results in all of the parts not be available when the returned container is placed on the assembly line of the manufacturer for re-use. To avoid a line stoppage, the returned containers must be inspected and damaged parts repaired or replaced and missing parts provided from an inventory of spare components.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an improved cleated crate. It is to such that the present invention is directed.